making sense of loose coffeeshop talk, political analyses and comments

How should we judge a government?

In Malaysia, if you don't watch television or read newspapers, you are uninformed; but if you do, you are misinformed!

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience - Mark Twain

Why we should be against censorship in a court of law: Publicity is the very soul of justice … it keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. - Jeremy Bentham

"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no

responsibility at the other. " - Ronald Reagan

Government fed by the people

Career options

I suggest government... because nobody has ever been caught.

Corruption so prevalent it affects English language?

Corruption is so prevalent it affects English language?

When there's too much dirt...

We need better tools... to cover up mega corruptions.

Prevent bullying now!

If you're not going to speak up, how is the world supposed to know you exist? “Orang boleh pandai setinggi langit, tapi selama ia tidak menulis, ia akan hilang di dalam masyarakat dan dari sejarah.” - Ananta Prameodya Toer (Your intellect may soar to the sky but if you do not write, you will be lost from society and to history.)

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Niklas: Why I won't work for Google

Most people qualified in IT would grab an opportunity to work for Google. But here is an exception...

The Offer:

Hi Niklas,
Patrick here from Google.
I looked over your Github and LinkedIn profiles, and personal site (having found the panic_bcast project), and was keen to get in touch regarding a number of Engineering positions here at Google.
Your Open Source contributions and projects, Systems/Networking experience and development background looked relevant to what some of the engineers here are doing, but I wanted to touch base with you first to understand a bit more about your work.
If your schedule permits it, would you be open to a conversation next week?
The positions I had wanted to share with you are part of a mission-critical team that combines software development, networking and systems engineering expertise to build and run large scale, massively distributed, fault-tolerant software systems and infrastructure.
Thanks for your time and have a good weekend.
Best regards,
Patrick

The Rejection:

Hi Patrick,
Thank you for reaching out to me and complimenting me on the panic_bcast project, it is always flattering being recognized by entities greater than oneself.
Before properly answering your question I would like to give you some background about myself and my relation to Google.
As a kid growing up Google would always be the most interesting employee one working in the technical industry could possibly imagine. Google would flex very playfully in line with its “Don’t do evil” agenda. I grew up as a very ideologically and principle driven individual, but foremost I was curios by nature. As a kid interested in information security and computers in general I quickly began exploring code by breaking it and systems by breaking into them driven by the force that information wanted to be free.
My father found out quickly and we had a long chat about life’s importance. He told me not to be wreckless because the future would consist of tyranny and powerless people. He told me that in the future the world’s power structures would depend much on what I would today categorize as cypherpunks and hackers.
I feel that the future that my father explained to me as a kid is today’s present. Google says “Don’t do evil” on one hand, but on another hand Google also reads the contents of its users’ emails and tracks their behavior on the Internet – two things which I would characterise as directly evil. Google reads the emails that my mother is writing and tracking what my friends are buying. For advertisement purposes, Google says, and we only discovered the true consequences later when Edward Snowden blew the whistle.
It turned out that Google had been helping American and European intelligence agencies illegally wiretap their own citizens. “We tried to fight back, we tried not to be evil!”, Google responds, but we never saw Google shut down its service in protest like Lavabit. We never saw Google fight back for the best of its users, which consists of a great majority of the world’s population. We saw Google justify its data inspection by saying that it was great for advertisement models.
We learned that Google is in fact doing very evil things to the majority of the world’s population. We learned that Google tends to sport the two edged sword. We learned that Google’s “open source as much as possible” policy only applies as long as they don’t disrupt existing flows of cash.
We witnessed Google sending cease and desist letters to the developers and maintainers of the popular Android CyanogenMod for violating some patents by modifying open source elements of an open source licensed project.
We learned that Google’s friendliness is a marketing scheme. We learned that Google is not what we thought it would be, that it is not fighting for what’s best for humanity but for what’s best for its own dollar.
I am different from Google in this sense. My principles are not compatible with those that Google is displaying and has displayed throughout history.
Due to my principles I would much rather delete all data Google has collected about its users which consists of myself, my family, my friends, my co-workers and everybody that they know that connects to and uses popular services on the public Internet. I would not be able to sleep at night knowing that I worked for a company which was directly threatening and targeting the people that I love.
I would never be able to develop the tyrannical tools required to keep the Google wheels spinning. I am on the opposite side of the spectra. The project which you acknowledged, panic_bcast, I wrote to make it harder for law enforcement officers to gather evidence on political activists through cold boot attacks. Other projects I am mainly involved in because I believe in a free unregulated stream of information on the public Internet.
I am one of those lucky individuals who can afford to work only on projects which I choose, and I choose to only involve myself in projects that I believe contribute something positive to the planet’s population. Google is not very high on that list, therefor I must respectfully decline your job offer.
“Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” – Henry L. Stimson
I wish you good luck on your quest to find the right candidate.
Regards,
Niklas

No comments:

Shouldn't every Malaysian abide by this universal principle?

It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree which he himself stands by the country.

It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country.

It is unpatriotic to support him to the extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.

In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about him or anyone else.

- Theodore Roosevelt

Best prosecutor money can buy

Apparently he was paid only Rm1000! But it has been alleged he was paid privately by Najib a total sum of Rm9.5 millions! Shouldn't we be concerned about his money trails since? Now with new revelation, allegation that it could have been used to influence Anwar's Sodomy 2 trial cannot be easily dispelled or discounted. The unusual appointment of an Umno lawyer as lead prosecutor, which resulted in reversals of High Court's verdict in Anwar's favour, adds to the suspicion.

In case you didn't notice

"Do not be confused, the account is in my name, but it is not like a personal account," - Najib Tun Razak said in a TV3 interview on 1MDB.

Latest: "I took money for us to spend."

It became clear when the timing coincided with GE13. So was it a bought victory?

Now friends with a common enemy.

Forgiven but not forgotten.

legality

Are we in this situation now?

The only way BN can keep him away

Jailed again for sodomy... not political conspiracy?

We share her grief for the second time...

“I never thought I would go through this ordeal again”.

I came and there was no record...

I was blown up and there were 2 killers but no motive!

Umno wins 88 seats (from 79) at the expense of other coalition partners

Malaysia Boleh Perception Dictionary

Amman, Jordan

Kuala Lumpur

kosongcafe

LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Acronym

I have to live with my acronym, Kosong (Malay for Zero). Had I started with just 1 before accumulating the 0, I would have been a millionaire!

Total Pageviews

Followers

Batu Gajah KTMB Station

A Monument of Development at the expense of Convenience a.k.a. White Elephant (for the first few years when it was built before service commenced. Since then, the train service proves to be convenient. So users have no choice but to use it despite its inconvenient location. That's why KTM can ignore our request for a stop at the old station.

A reminder of my Petition

Symbolic of residents' appeal and KTMB's 'Kami Tidak Mahu Balas'. Note KTM responded on Jan 5, 2010 - awaiting a study on the suggestion. This notice shall remain until something is done. 7th Anniversary of No Action yet. Arrogance of a monopolistic entity?

Link List

“Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said.” - Mark Twain

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

Wisdom of a Retiree

WORRYING does not take away tomorrow's TROUBLES; it takes away today's PEACE. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

My Ong Badge...

Needs a Mansion to match

Wang

The Chinese character for king - 王- reveals a great deal about the nature of rulership: the three horizontal strokes represent heaven, humanity and earth, while the vertical stroke which holds the celestial, existential and terrestrial realms together and apart symbolizes the upright, honorable and noble qualities required to maintain balance and harmony on all levels. - Antares

Contributors

Be simple... it is not easy!

It’s easy to let your thoughts and worries complicate your life. But it takes great strength to be simple. - Monica Kupfer.

Politically correct, quotable quotes

"I am only one, But still I am one.I cannot do everything, But still I can do something;And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Edward Everett Hale

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. - Mahatma Gandhi

You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Think before you whine

Each day,before you say an unkind word - think of someone who can't speak;

before you complain about the taste of your food - think of someone who has nothing to eat;

before you complain about your husband or wife - think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion;

before whining about the distance you drive - think of someone who walks the same distance by foot;

and when you are tired and complain about your job - think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job;

before you complain about life - think of someone who went too early to heaven;

and when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - put a smile on your face and think: I'm glad I'm still alive and can move around!

Advice on relationships:

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment" Benjamin Franklin

Sometimes, it is better to be kind than to be right.

Don’t let someone become a priority in your life, when you are just an option in his or her life.

Always be yourself because the people who matter don't mind, and the ones who mind, don't matter.

A true friend is someone who says nice things behind your back.

Forget about the people in your past...They didn't make it to your future for a reason.

To the world you may be just one person; but to one person you may be the world.

Cause of problems with Mother-in-law:

Every mother hopes that her daughter will marry a better man than she did, and is convinced that her son will never find a wife as good as his father did!

Acknowledgement

Contents were from various sources, and some originals had been edited. My blog serves to inform and hopefully, entertain as well. Please consider it an honour if any of your materials had been used and that it was interesting enough to be shared, for which I am thankful. I apologize if there is unintended infringement of any copyright and would readily remove any materials upon request.